


Possibilities Of Tomorrow

by shelovestoship



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, This one is a little weird, Timeline? What Timeline?, angsty, at least implied HEA sort of, but HEA, cute kid, maybe a tiny bit of magic, some angsty bits though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23739556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelovestoship/pseuds/shelovestoship
Summary: Miggy with a side of cute kid and angst.Starts somewhere early season 2, time skips a bit. The timeline is all-around weird.
Relationships: Juliet Higgins/Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV, Magnum / Abby
Comments: 25
Kudos: 110





	1. Happy Enough

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I should be finishing my two other WIP but this one is completed. I actually wrote it a while back after I hung out with my friend and her two kids and had just re-watched some season 1 episodes and thought about how many kid moments there are in the show. I actually have a whole blog post on why there should be a kid (“Lily”) character in season 3 (that I might I’ll post on Tumblr if I ever get around to finishing it).
> 
> Also, the format/ timeline for this is kind of strange and I wasn’t sure about posting it as lots of short chapters vs. one long one but I think parts is what makes the most sense. Or maybe not? I don’t know. Tell me at the end if you thought it worked or not...

##  Happy Enough

_Stunt, dwarf, or destroy the imagination of a child, and you have taken away its chances of success in life. Imagination transforms the commonplace into the great and creates the new out of the old_

_\- L. Frank Baum._

Juliet Higgins had never spent much time around children. It was the nature of her former profession that she’d spend much more around guns and criminals rather than small humans. And even before that as a teenager, she’d been more comfortable tutoring kids her own age rather than babysitting squirming, noisy children. 

She had nothing against them though and had for a brief time in her life even imagined a future where she might even have a baby of her own. 

“Pick a card,” the little girl said. “I’ll tell you your future.”

“Brilliant,” she said, glancing at Abby and Magnum who were looking chummy over by the patio. She wasn’t sure how she was now having her future told to her by Abby’s five-year-old niece, while they stood over there and flirted. Or why it was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Still, not wanting to upset the girl, whose name was Peach, Juliet took a card from the proffered stack.

“Queen of Pentacles,” Peach declared as Juliet put the card on the table. “Pick another.”

“That one no good?” Juliet asked, deciding to focus on the girl rather than the unwelcome feelings Magnum and Abby were causing her.

“You gotta pick more than one,” she explained as if this was something Juliet should obviously know.

Never having had her future read with tarot cards, much less by a child, Juliet didn’t know this. But did as she was bid, once more picking a card.

“The lovers,” Peach said, now looking pleased. It seemed every emotion the child felt played across her pale face. “That’s a good one. Another.”

Juliet picked several more cards until she’d picked five, which Peach placed on the table in a pattern.

“Last one.”

Juliet nodded and extracted a card. 

When she flipped it over, she didn’t need the girl’s explanation of what it was.

The card was **death**.

Wonderful.

“Don’t worry. Death can mean the start of something new, a transition,” Peach explained and Juliet wondered if she was as transparent as Magnum sometimes claimed. But she knew she wasn’t. She’d been a spy for a decade. She was a good liar. “Most of the time. I mean it can mean real death too.”

“Well, maybe we can put it back and I’ll redraw it?” Juliet suggested, actually quite liking the idea. Not that she believed in any of this nonsense, of course.

“You can’t put cards back,” Peach declared seriously and took the card and placed it on the formation she’d created from Juliet’s six cards. “Now give me a minute.”

“Yes, of course, take your time.” _I’ll just watch your aunt flirt with my business partner_. 

As if they could sense her attention, Magnum and Abby turned and then came over to them. They were holding hands and smiling. They were happy. 

Juliet was jealous. 

Not of Abby. 

No. Of course not. 

Just of their happiness. Not that she wasn’t happy. 

She was. She really was. 

Sometime after Richard died she’d decided she’d simply live each day. Not plan for the future. Just try to find a few good things every day to keep her from crumbling. And it was working pretty well.

“Peach, honey we were thinking we’d head down to the bea-” Abby began, squatting down next to Peach.

“Not now, I’m telling Ms. Higgins’ future.” Peach didn’t look away from the cards. 

“She won’t mind if we skip that I’m sure,” Abby said, giving Juliet a smile and an eye roll. It said _kids, huh, sorry if she’s bothering you._

But strangely enough, Juliet wasn’t bothered. At least not by Peach, who now looked up at Juliet. As if to check whether her aunt’s statement that Juliet didn’t care, was true or not.

“I would very much like my future told,” she told the girl.

Peach nodded and Abby said, “Alright, but let’s be quick about it.”

“This card means your gonna have money, love and success,” she said pointing to the lovers card. “Or at least one of those, I think. And probably love, because this card means your gonna be a mommy. But all of it might not come true because you have Eight of Swords which means you can’t let go of the past. And then there is death...”

“Death?” Magnum said, squatting down next to Peach to look. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Peach has assured me I’m not about to meet my doom but most likely only transition into some new phase of my life,” she told him, holding his eyes. For maybe just a moment longer than she should have with Abby there.

“Sounds like you’re about to meet Mr. Right,” Abby said cheerfully. “You done Peach? Mr. Magnum got a surfboard. I bet if you ask him real nicely he’ll maybe let you try it.” 

Juliet wasn’t sure surfing was appropriate for five-year-olds but Peach was not her responsibility and the prospect of surfing finally distracted the girl from her tarot telling desires. 

And Juliet was left alone to watch them walk down to the beach, the little girl in the middle holding Magnum’s right hand and Abby’s left one. 

The fact that Peach’s hair was three shades lighter than Juliet’s own hair, almost white, while both Magnum and Abby were dark, was not enough to make them look anything but the perfect little family.

“How silly,” she said as she glanced at the table where the cards had been laid out. Peach had carefully mixed and stacked the cards together again.

Not sure why but not able to help herself she plucked the top card off the stack.

Eight of Swords.

The card she’s gotten the first time too. The card that meant she was stuck in the past. What were the odds that she’d randomly pick the card that meant that, again?

Very low to be sure.

But she didn’t believe in tarot cards or any of it. Yet here it was. Maybe there was some depressing truth to Peach’s predictions. Maybe what stood in the way of love, family, happiness was her own ability to let go of the past. 

But no. She was happy. 

Happy enough, at least.


	2. Car Seats & Revelations

## Car Seats & Revelations

_Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them._

_-Anna Taylor_

“I put something on your desk for you,” Peach whispered as she hugged Juliet goodbye, her small hands still sticky from the cupcakes they’d had frosted after the girl's surfing lessons down at the beach. “It’s a crystal that will help you see the future.”

“That’s not necessary,” she said but upon seeing Peach’s hurt expression when they pulled apart she added, “But thank you very much.”

The little girl beamed and ran over to Mangum by the Ferrari, where he was fighting with the large car booster seat. Clearly, the Ferrari was not meant to be a family car. Still, the sight of it made her smile. Magnum would be a good dad one day.

“Thank you for having us,” Abby said as she checked her niece’s backpack to make sure nothing had been left behind. Juliet decided not to mention the crystal that Peach had gifted her. “Sorry if we made a bit of a mess in the kitchen. And sorry about all her tarot craziness. You know how kids can be.”

Juliet didn’t know “how kids could be” but felt she’d rather cut her arm off than admit as much to Abby. A disturbing thought. A disturbing realization. She wanted to be better than Abby. She wanted Abby to know she was just as good as her. That everything she could do, including caring for children, Juliet could do too.

Or maybe it wasn’t so much she wanted Abby to know it, she thought as Magnum came up to them. Maybe she wanted him to know.

He smiled at her, them maybe, holding the booster seat and asked her, “You know how to set this up?” 

He asked her. Not Abby.

And for some reason, that made something inside of her just explode with emotions. Pleasure at the value he put in her skills, at him asking her, preferring her help to Abby’s and confusion and shame at the fact that she’d just let those feelings flood her.

“For sure,” she said, even though she’d never seen a booster seat up close before today. 

But she needed something to do. Something to take away from the realization she’d had. One that had sneaking up on her for a while. 

That she wasn’t just jealous of Abby and Magnum’s happiness. 

That she was actually envious of Abby herself. Because Abby had Magnum, had him in a way that Juliet didn’t think she could ever have. And she suddenly realized, she wanted to.

“There we go,” she said, a minute later. Booster seat in place. Not difficult at all. Sometimes she really did worry about Magnum’s intellectual capacity. 

“Thanks Higgy,” Magnum said, lifting Peach into the car.

“Well, thanks again for having us,” Abby said, giving Juliet a quick hug. 

“No worries. Please come back any time,” she managed robotically. Because with the booster seat in place she was back to internally battling the shock of her Magnum-revelation.

She found the crystal Peach had left her. It was a pretty purple with little bits of sparkly gray. Not a very fancy thing, but a gift given to her by a little girl with very good intentions. And that night, even though she didn’t believe in such things, she put the crystal on her bedside table before she went to sleep.


	3. Remembering

## Remembering

_People who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion._

_– Albert Einstein._

“Do you remember Abby?” Juliet asked Magnum as they sat on the beach, watching the sunset. 

“Yeah,” he grinned, sliding a hand up her arm. “You encouraged me to date her! Remember, you told me to bring her flowers.”

“I did.” She remembered that. It had been before she’d come to her _realization_. “She was nice. Remember Peach?”

“Peach?” 

“Her niece. You showed her how to surf. She was five,” Juliet said and as she did saw memories come back to him. 

“What about her?” he asked as he pulled her closer to him. 

“I think she predicted today.”

“A five-year-old predicted our city-council wedding?” he asked as she snuggled closer to him. “You cold?”

“It’s 70 degrees out,” she pointed out as he ran his hands over her arms and then across her stomach. “Hardly a temperature low enough for an English woman like myself to be cold.”

“Must be me giving you goosebumps then,” he said and kissed her. 


	4. Ours

##  **Ours**

_Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity._

_– Henry Van Dyke._

“What are you doing up?” he asked, coming over to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her. “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she told him, putting her fingers over his. “She’s just so beautiful.”

“She gets that from you,” he whispered and nuzzled her neck.

But she knew that wasn’t true. Their daughter’s looks were mostly Magnum, from the dark hair and eyes to the way she smiled. But it wasn’t Lily’s perfect little face or tiny little hands she was admiring tonight. 

“You know what makes her so beautiful?” she whispered. “The fact that she’s _ours.”_

“The baseball pajamas doesn't hurt either,” he said proudly.

“You’re incorrigible,” she said, leaning back against him. “Promise me it will be like this forever.”

“It won’t,” he said softly and she turned around in his arms to attempt to read his face, understand what he meant. “She’ll grow up, fall off her bike, make mistakes, have her heart broken. And we’ll be there for all of it. And will be just as amazing.”

She smiled, despite everything inside her telling her being this happy wouldn’t end well. Whenever she was happy, bad things happened.


	5. He Said We

##  **He Said _We_ **

_This is my family. I found it all on my own. It’s little, and broken, but still good. Yeah. Still good._

_–Stitch (Lilo & Stich) _

“We’re not going,” she told Rick. “I’m not taking Lily to her father’s funeral when he isn’t dead.”

“He’s gone Jules,“ he insisted. “It’s been three weeks. The blood-”

“No.” She shook her head as she watched Lily brush fingerprint dust over the coffee table. Magnum had gotten her a finger print-kit for her fifth birthday, saying if she was gonna run the family business one day she best start learning. 

Juliet had been wiping it off everything for almost two months. At first with mild annoyance and for the past three weeks with shaking hands and wet eyes. Because what if, what if, when that dust ran out, Magnum would never ever buy Lily another little jar of it? What if Rick was right? What if...

“No. He’s not. This isn’t how it’s meant to go, I don’t remember exactly but this isn’t how it ends,” she said, sinking down a dining room chair, clinging hope from to a memory of long-ago almost forgotten dream. “She hasn’t even fallen off her bike yet.”

“What?” Rick said.

“He said we’d be there when she fell off her bike,” she croaked. “When she made mistakes. When she had her heart broken...”

“You’ll be there for her. Me and TC too,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s not enough. It needs to be him,” she said as Lily looked up and smiled at them. Seeing Juliet’s distressed expression the smile faded quickly. “History can’t repeat itself like this. It’s not fair.”

“I know you lost Richard-”

She turned a sharp eye at him, sudden angrer flashing through her. “I’m not talking about my history. I’m talking about his. Hers.” She nodded at Lily. “Magnum grew up without his father, now his daughter will too? I don’t accept that. I won’t. He’s not dead, just missing. And I’m going to find him.”

“Alright.” Rick nodded. “How can I help?”


	6. Culturally Enriching

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually have a whole fic outline with this plot - Magnum and Higgins on the case tracking some shady people, everything goes wrong, they're separated, Higgins wakes up in the hospital and Rick and TC tell her a bunch of Magnum's blood was found next to a pile of shell cases which they track to the Chinese triad. They're all like 'he's fine, we'll find him, he'll find us' but two weeks go by and no word and suddenly everyone is like 'sorry for your loss' and starts planing the funeral. Juliet isn't having that though and yeah, eventually Magnum finds his way to a phone and a rescue operation can be mounted! 
> 
> But I like my faves in the same car, arguing and stuff, not being tragically separated, so it never got very far. 
> 
> If you like the idea, I think I read one kind of similar to it somewhere on here or over on FF.net (basically everyone thinks Magnum is dead and Higgy is heartbroken) but I can't remember what it's called!

##  **Culturally Enriching**

_“Life is beautiful. It’s about giving. It’s about family.”_

_–Walt Disney_

“I heard you didn’t go to my funeral,” he said as she stared at him. He was sitting up in the hospital bed, looking like himself. Almost. “I’d be offended but since I wasn’t dead I guess it’s alright.”

“Magnum,” she whispered, not believing it even though he was right in front of her.

“You know if you weren’t so British calling me by my last name when we’ve been married for six years would be kind of strange,” he continued. 

“You’re okay.”

“Yeah. But remember how you told me once Disney World, under the right circumstances, could be culturally enriching?” 

“I did not say that,” she said, even though, she vaguely could recall something like it.

“You did!” He moved his bandaged arm, then winced before he continued, “So if you don’t mind, for this year’s family vacation, let’s skip China, okay? Let’s go to Disney World,” he sounded chipper but he looked about as exhausted as she felt. 

Only he’d had a good reason; he’d been shot, spent a week in a shipping container, escaped and then gotten himself to the American embassy in Beijing with only a tiny amount of help from her. “If you still want Lily to see the Great Wall we can do it next year.”

Juliet was not normally a crier. In fact, she could count the number of times in her adult life she’d cried. But right then she couldn’t help herself and she threw herself at him and spent the next five minutes sobbing into his shoulder.

“Who knew you had such strong feelings about Disney World,” Magnum said comfortingly once she was all cried out, and for the first time in a month, Juliet felt everything might just be okay.


	7. Awake // 6 Years Earlier

##  **Awake // 6 Years Earlier**

_“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.”_

_― Doctor Who_

The 5:30 am alarm woke her, pulling her away from the all too vivid dream. She turned it off, then lay staring at the ceiling for a few long moments. Not even glancing at the crystal on her bedside table.

Crystals could not cause prophetic dreams.

She didn’t even believe in karma, how could she believe in this? 

Even if, yesterday’s realization, made her want to. 

Probably it was that very thing that had given her this bizarre dream. She couldn’t decide if it was a happy dream even. It had started nicely but there had been an overwhelming sense of dread and terror. That feeling still clung to her, even though when she woke the dream had been changing towards the better. 

Perhaps because it was a dream. Just a dream. Nothing in the world could give her what she’d had in that make-believe place her mind had created. It was just… too good. And just like she had in the dream, she reminded herself that happiness was rarely hers for long.

She rolled over and was surprised to feel a tear escape, the tiny little droplet rolling down the side of her face. A remnant of the dream, for sure. She had been awfully upset. Another tear escaped.

Wiping it away she scolded herself. She was not crying. Had nothing to cry about. Yet somehow, it felt like she’d lost that life she’d in her dream. Like it had been real and by waking up and denying it, she’d lost Magnum without ever having him. Had lost Lily too. Only Lily wasn’t even a real child. Just a figment of her imagination, fueled by Peach’s visit and her tarot card predictions.

 _Only_ , what if she was real. Or could be.

What if it all could be true? she thought as she went to open the balcony door. Taking in the beautiful Hawaii sunrise she did her best to push all thoughts of the future away. She’d live for today. For the good she could find today. Just like she always did. 

“Hey Higgy,” Magnum’s voice interrupted her musing. “You wanna go for a run?”

“What are you doing awake at this hour?” she called down to him.

“I could ask you the same question.” He grinned up at here. “Come on. You do still plan on beating me at the Iron Man, don’t you?”

“Like that will be a challenge,” she called back. “I bet you won’t even qualify to be in the race.” 

“Think again. I’ve been working out every day.”

“Bet I can still outrun you,” she taunted. It felt nice to banter with him, to not think about the dream. 

“I bet you can’t.”

“I’ll be down in two minutes,” she said, not about to let that challenge go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hate 'it was all a dream' cop out endings but that's not what this is. Really! It's just time... well it's a funny thing (even more so in this story). And I mean I did warn you in the tags the timeline was gonna be wacky.


	8. The End // The Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely happy with this (which is why I didn't post it when I wrote it back in the fall). It's a little on the nose or something. Too rushed, yet not. IDK. Maybe I'll come back and tweak it, already tried but still not really happy.

##  **The End // The Beginning**

_...faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen._

_\- Hebrews 11:1_

They ran lazily along the beach, cooling down after their race. She’d beat him, but only by mere seconds. If she didn’t kick her training into gear he’d beat her soon. Couldn’t have that.

“Did you ever go to Disney World as a child?” she asked, unable to stop herself, the dream pulling her back.

“Sure.” He smiled with his whole face, this question clearly having brought good memories back for him. “My mom took me once. I threw up on Donald Duck’s leg.”

“Charming,” she said, wondering why Magnum had become so important. They were so different. Why did she care so much? They could literally have come from two different worlds, seeing as the closest she’d ever come to an amusement park as a child was one carousel ride her grandmother had taken her on when she was five before Juliet’s father sent her to boarding school. 

“I’m guessing you’ve never been?” he asked in return, slowing down further. “Probably last place your parents would have taken you, right?”

“Um,” she said, because he was absolutely right. Trying to diplomatic she found herself saying, "Under the right circumstances, I believe even Disney world could be culturally enriching. But no. My parents never took me to an amusement park." 

“Did you fall and hit your head?” He mocked happily. “Juliet Higgins considering taking her daughter to Disney World! That beats everything."

She stopped running.

He did too.

"Why did you say daughter?"

"I don't know. I feel like you'd have a daughter," he said with a shrug, then grinned and muttered, “Culturally enriching!” before getting moving again.

_Culturally enriching._

That was the words Magnum had claimed she used in the dream. That Disney World could be culturally enriching.

Had it just stuck in her mind? From the dream. Why had she said it? She hadn’t meant to. 

Why had Magnum said he thought she’d have a daughter, the morning after the dream? What if...

What if the future she had dreamt might be waiting for her. If she let go of Richard, made plans, dared to want more. If she tried.

Question was, could she do that?

Move forward. 

“Hey partner? You coming?” he called, running backward.

 _Partner_.

Right then she realized she’d said yes to being Magnum’s partner. And she’d done it weeks ago. 

That choice had taken her out of the limbo she’d been in for almost two years as she worked as the majordomo of Robin’s Nest.

She’d already been moving forward - begun making plans, - before Peach’s dire warning of never finding happiness without letting go of the past. 

She smiled. She wasn’t stuck. She was slowly changing her life, daring to grab onto something she wanted to do, something she cared about.

“What’s with the smile?” Magnum teased. 

“I just realized something,” she said and with newfound energy she ran past him, grinning from ear to ear. Because suddenly there were so many possibilities. So many plans to make, new hopes and dreams to work towards.

-

-

-

The End

(Or the beginning, depending on how you see things…)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How you read this? Is time just a big circle? Conscience? Is the future set in stone? Is all time, all action, happening at the same time, all the time? Are there many different possible futures and Higgy just caught a glimpse of it? Is some higher power or force of destiny sending her a glimpse of what could be hers?


End file.
